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For all the talk of how well Joey Votto's been in the two spot in the lineup (.296/.486/.500), it's magnified by the struggles in front of him and behind him.

I know some people are adverse to talks of on-base percentage, but as we get to the one month mark of the season, you do have to look at the Reds' lineup and note that two of its top three hitters in the order -- which means two of the three with the most plate appearances -- have on-base percentages less than .300. League average for all hitters is .309.

To have two players -- Billy Hamilton (.281) and Brandon Phillips (.273) -- in the top three under that mark is going to put a crimp on run scoring, as outs are the only thing that prevent run scoring.

While Hamilton's struggles are not exactly a surprise -- he's a rookie being asked to do quite a bit, Phillips is supposed to be a catalyst for this team. He's claimed, to others of course, that last year his wrist was an issue, but not one this year. It could be just a rough patch -- after starting the season by hitting .328/.350/.414 thanks to a .419 BAbip in the first 14 games of the season, he's hitting just .167/.188/.208 thanks to a .211 BAbip.

As a whole, the Reds are fourth among National League teams with a .321 on-base percentage and while Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce have ugly looking averages, they're not making outs at a high rate, as both have an above-average OBP, with Frazier at .337 and Bruce at .346.

Both Frazier and Bruce seem to be having a bit of bad luck when it comes to balls in play, as both have below not only league-average BAbip (batting average on balls in play), but also below their career averages. BAbip tends to normalize, so you should expect their averages to trend upward. Bruce's BAbip is .274 and Frazier's is .269. The league average is .297, and it tends to hover somewhere around .300 historically. Bruce's career BAbip is .296, while Frazier's is .285, but his .269 is the exact BAbip he had last season, which shows there's no guarantee it'll rise, but the number do suggest it should (and should is always different than will).

And if we're talking BAbip, then you have to bring up Zack Cozart, who until last night seemed to hit everything right at a fielder. He has .188 BAbip, compared to a career average of .279.

That same number suggests Phillips is actually getting more hits than usual on balls he puts in play -- with a .321 BAbip instead of a career .292. HE did maintain a .322 BAbip in 2011, when he hit .300. Phillips' 22.5 percent strikeout rate is the highest of his career (in 2005, he struck out 44.4 percent of the time, but that was in just nine plate appearances). In addition to striking out more (25 times so far) and making less contact, Phillips has just walked three times this season -- two of those coming on Opening Day.

And not to pick on him, but I saw something interesting the other day when Mark Sheldon wrote about stats from MLB Network that showed all 25 of Votto's hits going into Monday had come on pitches inside the strike zone. Votto and Matt Carpenter lead the NL in O-Swing%, which measures how many pitches outside the strike zone a player swings at -- and both Carpenter and Votto swung at just 18.8 percent of pitches outside the zone. Andrew McCutchen is third at 21 percent.

There's also the other side of that, Phillips and Marlon Byrd are swinging at 44.1 percent of pitches outside the strike zone.

Phillips is also swinging and missing at a rate higher than he has since coming to the Reds, swinging and missing 15.3 percent of the time, a jump from his 10.6 percent average.

All these numbers can normalize over time, but for now, it does highlight that the Reds aren't getting the production at the top of the lineup that it needs.

MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

Triple-A -- Buffalo 4, Louisville 1: Jeff Francis went seven innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks, increasing his ERA to 2.72 on the season. Buffalo starter Marcus Stroman held the bats hitless in his six innings, striking out 10. Rehabbing Reds infielder/outfielder Skip Schumaker was ejected in the second inning for arguing an umpire's call. [Box]

High-A -- Bakersfield 8, Stockton 7: CF Juan Silva hit a walk-off homer in the ninth to give Bakersfield the win. 3B Seth Mejias-Beran had three hits, including a double, and drove in two. [Box]

Low-A -- Lansing 4, Daytion 2 (Suspended): Left-hander Amir Garrett gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits over three innings before being taken out of the game, that was suspended in the fourth inning. The game will be completed today. [Box]

LINKS AND SUCH

• I'm always amazed at the things people will say to someone when they don't have to worry about any reaction from that person. If you're big enough to boo someone from the safety of your seats and that somehow makes you feel like a bigger person, maybe you should be able to do it to their face. Great stuff from Fallon.

• One reason the Brewers have been so good so far this season is their bullpen, including former Red Zach Duke. [FanGraphs.com]

• My favorite bad movie of all time is Road House. And this chart of all the fights in that cinematic masterpiece is nearly as genius as the film. [Entertainment Weekly]

• Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney have formed a "supergroup" called "super-Earth." [Portland Mercury]